Windells Part 1

This summer I was asked to coach up at Windells ski camp,
and I’m so glad I said yes to it. I had an absolute blast skiing this
summer, and was able to coach for two
sessions. Thankfully was able to get some pretty cool kids that were determined to learn, and ready to have fun skiing.

Mt. Hood was looking gorgeous as usual

During the first week we had some pretty solid weather, and I was able to learn a few tricks after coaching during freeski time for all the coaches. In the mornings I was coaching a pretty awesome group of 5
kids. Throughout the week it was fantastic watching them all progress and try to
improve their skiing as much as they could. Another thing happening during the entire first week was a lot of search and rescue helicopters looking for a missing hiker on Hood.

Heli taking off from the parking lot

Halfway through the session most of my kids decided to go
rafting, and for that reason I was one of the selected coaches to go with them, so happy I did. For the rafting trip we went down to Maupin on a scorching hot
day and had so much fun! The rest of the session was spent on the mountain riding
hard and teaching some kids how to do they’re first backflips, and teaching
others how to be smooth with the ladies. One camper, and all around awesome kid named Jack was able to get a smooch from the gorgeous liftie girls, and win some
swag from his coach.

Jack being a boss.

After a fun week of coaching and shredding with my campers
it was time to say bye to the session 3 campers. That first session flew by so fast, but I was excited for the fun part that I
had heard so much about from other coaches. Skiing on the hill is fantastic,
but if you’re not up skiing the best part of summer is during the in-between.
My first in-between was spent with the majority of the ski coaches on the
Oregon Coast for the 4th of July. From camping, having a huge bonfire,
and watching fireworks, it’s going to be very hard for any 4th of
July to top this one.

Hiking around Short Sands Beach with Collin, Steve, Tim, and Micah

The camping group

Bonfire

Fireworks lighting up the ocean

The following day a bunch of coaches left, but a few of us
remained and ended up going surfing for the first time. Definitely much harder
than it looked, and was a very humbling experience for all of us. Ended up
being an amazing way to end a great trip to the coast.

Surfing at Short Sands

The next day however was my birthday and the final day of
the in-between, thanks to some friends we were able to have some fun and
make it a memorable one. From going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, and
watching a Portland Thorns game, seeing Alex Morgan in real life, and getting
some ice cream. It ended up being a fantastic birthday indeed.

Birthday fun at Buffalo Wild Wings!

Jeld-Wen Field for the Portland Thorns game

From enjoying a nice little break on the coast, to jumping
right back into work with the arrival day for Session 4. This session I ended
up getting some kids who were a little older than my previous session. This was
fantastic since I didn’t have to worry about where most of them were if they
didn’t feel like skiing with me.

Chase Morhman getting after it on the windells jump

This entire week was so much fun for multiple reasons, first
my campers were awesome, and secondly I was able to start filming with Reed
Lewis for “The Darkside”, a ski edit we worked very hard on over the next few
weeks. Every day I would ski with my kids in the morning, then go meet up with
Reed and shred our faces off until they kicked us out of the park.

Khai Krepala getting his Rodeo 9's down

Over the week skiing with my campers, they were able to push
themselves, and a lot of them learned more than they ever thought they would
throughout the week. The entire week we just focused on having fun skiing,
instead of worrying about tricks, and they ended up progressing so much. Really
proud of how good they got throughout the session.

Shot of me by Julian, one of my campers

Unfortunately their were some injuries happening on the lane
this week. One day in particular there was over six calls to the snow patrol
between the Windells and High Casacade Lane(Snowboard Camp) Some of the
injuries involved one of my campers during his freeski time. While our head
coach Jeff Curry was heading down to help him out he flew over a jump roller to
an unexpected surprise of a boulder. Jeff ended up clipping the boulder, and in
the process broke his femur. This all came to a giant shock to all of us, and
made all of us much more aware of the dangers in the lane. Minus the injuries, it still ended up being a very fun and
sunny session up at Windells.

This was my last week of working up at Windells, and I’m very grateful to Jeff Curry for bringing me on board. Already looking forward to coaching again next summer, and spend more time on the lane with some awesome people.